President Obama has declared Aug. 26 — which marks the 91st anniversary of the constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote — to be “Women’s Equality Day.”
In a proclamation published by the White House Thursday, Obama said, “I call upon the people of the United States to celebrate the achievements of women and recommit ourselves to the goal of gender equality in this country,”
“The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution tore down the last formal barrier to women’s enfranchisement in our nation and empowered America’s women to have their voices heard in the halls of power,” Obama said.

I went over there to insult them for being stupid, but I suppose they will just have my comment suppressed. Either way, the comment section over there is full of outrage at the uppity pres for making a declaration like this.

Yeah, if Obama would just quit encouraging womenfolk and non-whites it would be a much more comfortable and familiar country to all us poor, poor white boys. What ever happened to the Good Old Days when everyone knew their place? Sigh …

The Western suffrage story began when Wyoming transformed a dream into reality in 1869. That year, the twenty-member Territorial Legislature approved a revolutionary measure stating: “That every woman of the age of twenty-one years, residing in this Territory, may at every election to be holden under the law thereof, cast her vote.” William Bright, the bill’s sponsor, had come to share his wife, Julia’s, belief that suffrage was a basic right of American citizenship.
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There was no organized suffrage campaign, and not a single parade, debate or public display. But women kept vigil outside Governor John A. Campbell’s office until he signed the bill into law. Eliza A. “Grandma” Swain of Laramie claimed the honor of casting Wyoming’s first female ballot in 1870. Esther Morris of South Park City and Caroline Neil gained fame as the nation’s first female justices of the peace. The next year Wyoming’s women sat on juries, another simple but revolutionary inroad for women’s rights….
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Wyoming statehood, in 1890, brought the frightening prospect that opponents of suffrage would rescind the right in the new constitution. Women lobbied hard against such threats. Two-thirds of the voters (all male) approved the proposed constitution with suffrage intact. The suffragists’ powers of persuasion held up even when statehood was threatened in the face of congressional opposition. When the U.S. Congress, strongly opposed to women’s suffrage, threatened to withhold statehood from Wyoming, Cheyenne officials sent back a a staunchly worded telegram stating that Wyoming would remain out of the Union 100 years rather than join without women’s suffrage On July 10, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed the bill approving Wyoming as the nation’s “Equality State.” Wyoming voters went on to make history in 1924, when they elected Nellie Tayloe Ross, the nation’s first woman governor.

I’ll believe it when women are equally represented in congress, in business and when our healthcare needs aren’t subject to some asshole’s whims…. and also when we get paid the same as men for the same work… till then it’s just talk.

“The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution tore down the last formal barrier to women’s enfranchisement in our nation and empowered America’s women to have their voices heard in the halls of power,”

Damn no good soshulistcommiepinko Lie-bruls. That had to go and fuck up a perfectly good democracy by giving part of the population the right to participate in elections.

@AA+ Bonds: Completely agree: they’ve painted a bulls-eye on Bachman. You’d think their zombie followers would notice when the message changes. It will be interesting, in an appalling sort of way, to see how Sean Hannity changes over to follow the new instructions, given what a friendly venue he has provided for that lunatic over the past few years.

@5 Steve: Because Phyllis Schlafly said the ERA would lead to unisex bathrooms, gay rights (including marriage) and women in the military. And civilization as we know it would end if any of THOSE things were allowed to happen.

@5 Steve: Because Phyllis Schlafly said the ERA would lead to unisex bathrooms, gay rights (including marriage) and women in the military. And civilization as we know it would end if any of THOSE things were allowed to happen.

@efgoldman: OT but i LOVE ellen goodman. I had the privilege to meet her several years back – actually she was on a panel which was interviewing me – and she was just so classy and friendly and interested, even in something random like prehistoric archaeology which was totally outside her area of interest and experience.

Is this post tongue-in-cheek? I hope so. Doesn’t everyone know that one of the president’s less onerous duties is the “declaring” of National Days and holidays? He doesn’t get to choose them (that is congress’ job) but he gets to “declare” them.

The president declares a day of Thanksgiving every year, even though all of us know when it’s going to be and could pick it out on the next 100 years’ worth of calendars. But the president gets to declare it. Probably a welcome break from the usual hard round of presidentin’ duties.